Probably the most outdated thing about it was how it was clearly written and developed for the male gaze. I don’t even mean the sex cards, I mean how Triss and Shani are purely there as objects of attraction with hardly any personality aside from being sexy women.
If you’re going for a remake and not a remaster, why wouldn’t you change a bunch of stuff? Let’s face it, there will be a fair a share of people who have only played Witcher 3 and they will probably hate the remake if it’s not as good or does stuff completely different.
The meme is completely on point. I mean, I know I’ll be roasted for this, but I hated pretty much everything about The Witcher, instantly.
It gave me valuable perspective on what ALL fantasy stuff must look like to people who never fuck with fantasy stuff, and generally dislike it. I only played a few hours of it, and the whole time I was like “they’re not adequately explaining what a ‘witcher’ really even is. They’re not introducing the worldbuilding stuff in a way that makes me give a shit about it. And the main-character-has-lost-his-memory trope is just waaaaaay too overdone, in the first place. This is all just boring me. And now I’m getting…ummm…some kind of virtual post-coital trading card? To commemorate my character boning this redheaded fantasy ho? Okay? That seems sort of classless.”
Keep in mind, I do like fantasy shit. I defend “genre fiction,” whenever I see people employing that phrase as an epithet. But “The Witcher” made me realize what it must really look like, when you’re a non-genre person, looking in from the outside.
Basically, it was both an enlightening and depressing experience.
EDIT: I really hate the fact that I only remembered anything about that fantasy ho, because the stupid ‘sexcard’ helped me fucking remember it. Goddammit. I guess it worked? If it was trying to make me remember that shit? Is that why it exists? Then why did it ONLY give me a little flashcard for my dick-related accomplishments? There are probably people who will think I’m being prudish or overly “politically correct.” Whatever. Think what you want. I just think that shit is fucking classless, like I said.
The earliest (modern, post-printing-press) example of the trope appears to be in A Tale of Two Cities, which was published in 1859. I’m sure there were plenty of other instances of it, before the arrival of the 20th century, but it looks like it wasn’t until the amnesia trope started appearing in various silent-era movies that it really became a cliché.
But it’s a total cliché. And it has been one, for a very long time. That doesn’t mean you can’t employ it, successfully. But if you choose to put that shit in your fiction, you are giving yourself an enormous extra encumbrance. It’s like running a marathon with extra weights strapped to your legs. Succeeding will be much more difficult, and you should only attempt such a flex if you’re REALLY GOOD AT WHAT YOU’RE DOING.
And the dipshits who made “The Witcher” just weren’t good enough. Even without that extra difficulty, they were already writing cringe-ass dialogue and generally doing everything in a low-quality manner.
Even at the time people commented how weird it was. It was a big dipshit move. I'm glad they improved on the matter, even if the Witcher 2 was still a little rough on that point.
Listen, I’m working my way through a bottle of Jamison whiskey as we speak and can barely understand what you’re getting at. I read something about amnesia though, which reminded me of my aunt’s exorcism, which also reminded me I still have fries i.N my toaster oven from earlier, so thanks. Good name btw.
Amnesia isn’t an encumbrance for writers, it’s a crutch. When you aren’t good at writing characters and settings with logical depth, you give your main character amnesia. That way anytime something needs explaining you just have your character ask why something is the way that it is. If you need a Deus ex machina to solve a writing mistake you just pull something out of the blue and claim it was always a likelihood.
I basically agree. It’s not something that can NEVER be done. Tropes like that can be used with extreme care, and can sometimes pay off.
My opinion is that it’s an encumbrance and a tool only to be wielded by experts AT BEST. At worst, it’s just a bomb covered in shit that will utterly turdify any media it gets tossed into.
The Witcher 1 was honestly pretty mid, I agree with your criticisms. It coasted on an open world, a 3-style fighting system, and the appeal of being a Fantasy Detective™.
The Witcher 3 was genuinely great though, definite recommend.
I do keep hearing that, from a lot of people. I might mess with it, eventually. I’m sure it goes on sale for the price of a bucket of popcorn, pretty frequently.
I got it on steam for £8.32 not too long ago (including all the DLC bundled). Even as a casual gamer, I’m enjoying it ( though I kinda suck at it). Definitely don’t regret buying it.
People already thought it was classless in 2007, and that’s the time when everyone thought the r-word was the funniest shit and David Jaffe was a respectable game developer
I forced myself to finish it (fucking third chapter) because everyone keeps saying how good the third one is and I just couldn’t be bothered to go past the tutorial of the second one after playing the first game…
Witcher 2 had a amazing intro video. And then honestly, I don’t remember much of my playthrough. I remember running around whacking things, rolling around a lot and getting 10 hours in, stopped playing because I was too drunk and forgot everything.
Then I played Witcher 3 and went, “Wait, this series is a RPG?!”
W2 is basically a game where you decide the fate of the Northern Kingdoms and Letho as a precursor for W3. W3 if you dont have a W2 save simulates the endings you could have had if you played 2.
It’s got one thing really going for it and that’s the story. There’s some nice ideas about consequences along the way. There’s not really any bad choices to make, but sometimes there aren’t any good ones either.
But the gameplay is a hodgepodge of things that don’t fit. It’s a top down ARPG battered roughly into the shape of a third person brawler. I can see why it’s getting a remake.
You think that, but you’ve fallen for their clever tricks.
Witcher 1 was a CRPG. It was just a heavily modified Neverwinter Nights, aka DND, complete with d20 combat and skill rolls. That’s one of the reasons they reached out to Bioware for help making it :)
Sure, they slapped the sword switching and stance stuff on top but ultimately you might as well have been rolling dice to hit.
I said ARPG because apparently it was supposed to be a PC port of Dark Alliance. Is Dark Alliance a CRPG or an ARPG? I remember playing it on the PS2, but it’s a long time ago now.
The first witcher game was what introduced me to the series a year ago. Yes, it looks like shit on first sight but once you get used to it its one of the best games ever made imo. The story, the depth, the mechanics were pretty awesome for the time.
I tried it a few years ago and I kept doing front flips for some reason, asked someone on reddit, got called stupid for not knowing and some variations of get gud, so I deleted it
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